Revo Uninstaller

A few weeks ago, I reviewed a program that was designed to uninstall software from a PC. It turned out I could not recommend it, because the creator initially presented the program as being free, then late in the process instead decided it was actually for sale.

I downloaded the program at www.revouninstaller.com, and it was described there as “freeware” – that normally means that it is completely free. The site even described it in these words: “Revo Uninstaller is completely free – no cost, no adware, no spyware”. That’s pretty clear.

Installation was uneventful. I even read the License Agreement and it’s fine – you can accept it without reading the whole thing (like anyone reads those things anyway).

The program ran after installation was finished, and came up immediately with a screen full of the applications currently installed on my computer.

I picked a program to uninstall. When you right-click on a program, you are presented with several options which I found handy:

– Uninstall – this does as it says: removes the program and related files from your computer

– Remove entry – this leaves the program installed on your computer, but takes it out of this list

– Search Google – if you don’t recall what this program is or what it does, you can do a quick Google search to jump-start your memory

– About link, Help link, Update link – these are the files that are included with the program that tell you more about it. More info is always good.

– Install location – where the program is installed on your computer. This is usually the C drive, then Program Files folder, then some subfolder under that. This tells you exactly where it is.

– Open Registry Key – this takes you right to the point in the Registry where the information about this program is stored, and also the configuration points for it. You probably don’t want to mess with that unless you know what you are doing.

So I chose “Uninstall”, and got a warning asking if I really did want to uninstall. I confirmed. Then I was pleasantly surprised with the next option. I had 4 choices for “Uninstall Mode”:

1. Built-in: This just runs the program’s uninstaller without any additional checking to see if it all got deleted. This would be the same as uninstalling the program through Control Panel.

2. Safe: Includes the Built-in mode, but also checks the Registry for any leftover items that are safe to delete as well.

3. Moderate: Includes Safe mode, and does an extended scan to find any leftover information in the Registry and hard drive (takes a little longer because it is more thorough).

4. Advanced: Includes Safe mode, and also does a deep scan of the Registry and hard drive to find any leftover bits of data. This is the most thorough and takes the longest.

In most cases, you could choose the Safe mode and be fine. I opted for the Advanced mode to see how long it would take. A System Restore point was created, the application being removed was analyzed, the uninstaller was run, and then I was prompted to hit the Next button to begin the scan for leftover files, folders and Registry items.

I hit Next, and the “Scan” feature that was described as “slower” only took about 10 seconds. I got the “Finish” screen and the uninstall was complete. Piece of cake!The Tools feature:

When you click on the “Tools” icon at the top of the program window, you are presented with 3 functions that this program offers: Autorun Manager, Windows Tools, and Junk Files Cleaner.

Autorun Manager gives you control over the programs that run each time you boot up your computer (well, technically not all of them, but the ones with which most people would be concerned).

Windows Tools gives you easy access to some Windows functions that you probably know how to use already – adding and removing Windows components, Disk Defragmenter, etc.

The Junk Files Cleaner you might find interesting. When you click “Scan”, it will take a look at all of the files on your computer and determine which ones it feels are no longer needed. On my computer, it came up with 2,304 files totaling about 1,088 mb. Most of these were temp (.TMP) files, which indeed are not needed. When I instructed it to, the program went through and deleted all of them. There is a safety feature built in also – the program does set a Restore Point so that if something gets deleted and it shouldn’t have, you can go back to the way things were previously.

Overall I would say this program is a keeper. I will continue to use it to uninstall any software.

This week’s video is a good example of why you should not volunteer for anything.

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